While assailing the AIG rescue, she defended her plan to propose a $25 billion loan package for U.S. automakers.

"Clear from your mind any notion of bailout" for the auto industry, she told reporters.

Standing next to Pelosi, Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., suggested that it is dangerous for any person to have as much power as Bernanke used Tuesday night in taking over AIG.

Too much power for Bernanke?
He called Bernanke “a responsible and thoughtful person — I have no quarrel with his personality — but no one in a democracy, unelected, should have $800 billion to dispense as he sees fit.”

Frank, who took part in a meeting Tuesday night between Bernanke and congressional leaders, said he asked the chairman if the Federal Reserve had $85 billion to invest in AIG.

Bernanke's reply, according to Frank: “We have $800 billion.”

When a financial firm in distress threatens the economy, “we may have to have some intervention,” Frank said Wednesday, “but it shouldn’t be a unilateral decision by the chairman of the Federal Reserve -- backed up by the secretary of the Treasury -- spending $800 billion.”

Pelosi linked AIG bailout directly to the November election and slammed Republican presidential candidate John McCain, not for the AIG bailout, but for his economic beliefs which, she charged, had led to the Wall Street crisis.

A reporter asked Frank if the government purchase of AIG was similar to what socialists wanted in the 1930s — government ownership of America’s major corporations.

“It’s not as intellectually consistent as that,” Frank said, adding that the takeover was done by an administration that professes faith in free markets.

Bad economy good for Democrats?
Despite struggling to undertstand the implications of the Fed takeover of AIG, some Democrats believe the sour economy will lift their party's candidates to victory on Nov. 4.

While not all voters understand the nuances of “credit default swaps” and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, all are aware of the rising cost of gasoline.

"We don’t have the solution to everything. We don’t know exactly what to do about Wall Street and about banks, but we have within our grasp a bill (on energy) that could actually send a positive signal and I sure hope we don’t blow the opportunity," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from the energy-producing state of Louisiana,

And, she added, “If Congress leaves here without an energy bill, it will be one of the worst examples of partisan posturing that I’ve seen in my 12 years here.”

On Tuesday night, the House, on a vote of 236 to 189, passed a bill that might lower energy prices — in theory — by allowing more offshore drilling, although Republican critics say the bill wouldn’t curb environmentalists’ lawsuits that prevent drilling.